Immigration

Because the United States has such a large immigrant population, the structure
of inequality within the United States will depend intimately on how immigrants
are faring. There is accordingly much research on patterns of assimilation
and incorporation among immigrants, on the extent of anti-immigrant discrimination,
and on the effects of changes in immigration law and policy on the economic
standing of immigrants.

Assimilation

How many immigrants settle in segregated neighborhoods or participate
in segregated enclave economies? Are second-generation immigrants assimilating
as reliably now as in the past? Or are there now two groups of immigrants,
one that assimilates in the conventional way and another that rejects such
conventional assimilation and identifies with historically disadvantaged
groups, such as African Americans?

Discrimination

Is there an increase in prejudice or discrimination against immigrants?
Are the largest immigrant groups (e.g., Mexicans) regarded as a special
threat and hence subjected to much prejudice? Is there growing discrimination
against Middle Eastern immigrants?

Policy

How do changes in quotas, work visas, and other immigration policies affect
the immigrant and non-immigrant populations? How are wage rates affected
by changes in the size of the immigrant population? Is deindustrialization
warded off by increasing the size of the immigrant population and the availability
of inexpensive labor?

"When
the rich wage war it is the poor who die." - Jean-Paul Sartre

Featured Examples

Click on the buttons for examples of recent policy
analysis, basic research, and journalism addressing this Key Issue

Explore All Media and Affiliates

Click on the active buttons for a full listing of all the important policy
analysis, basic research, or journalism addressing this key issue.
Also explore our working papers addressing this key issue and our
affiliates with expertise in this key issue.

This
is a general HTML search of the Inequality.com website. To search our media by key issue, author, and other fields, we recommend using the advanced
search.